Paul Graham, writer of the daily vegan food blog
www.eatingveganinvegas.tumblr.com, explains why the liberation of
animals from human victimization is a social issue. He takes the
reader through a trip through history highlighting some of the major
social justice issues that were once ignored and ridiculed but later
where embraced. Graham believes the time has come for human rights.

Please visit
Being Vegan -- This is a Social Justice Issue:
http://lasvegas.informermg.com/2013/03/02/being-vegan-this-is-a-social-justice-issue/

Of
course the victimization of animals is a social justice issue. God’s
animals have been endowed with instinct and needs, and the capacity to
feel pain and joy. To prevent them from living their lives fully, from
exercising their instincts and needs and from living their lives free
of exploitation invariably raises ethical and spiritual issues than
cannot be swept under the rug any longer.

Colorado’s
legislature held a hearing last week on a bill to ban the cruel
tail-docking of dairy cows. It’s important to notice that although the
American Veterinary Medical Association opposes this practice, dairy
farmers still shamefully defend it. Please visit
Colo. House committee delays vote on cow tail bill

Tail-docking is cruel, unnecessary and shameful. It only shows that
dairy farmers are willing to go to great lengths to make-up for the
unsanitary conditions in which cows are kept. Consuming dairy means
supporting an industry that is unsustainable, cruel and unhealthy for
humans. Dairy does not help us honor our bodies or the rest of God’s
Creation.

The fear of you and the dread of you shall be
upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon
everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into
your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be
food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you
everything. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its
blood.”

This passage neither commands meat eating nor
indicates that the practice is God’s ideal. Indeed, eating meat came
with a curse—animals would no longer be humanity’s friends: “The fear
of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast…” (Gen. 9:2).
While eating meat was not prohibited, it represented a complete break
from God’s ideal of animals and humans living peacefully together, as
depicted in Eden and by the prophets.

“Ag-gag” bills are the new
tactic of the animal agriculture industry is using in order to hide
from the public the egregious animal cruelty that goes on a daily
basis in factory farms across the country. Ag-gag bills seek to
criminalize the act of documenting what goes on in factory farms so
whistleblowers are punished instead of those who victimize farmed
animals.

If these factory farms had nothing to hide, then
they would have nothing to fear. The tireless work of animal advocates
who risk much to expose the cruelty in factory farms and
slaughterhouses have made it possible for many of us to learn why
consuming animal products does not to accord with Jesus' teachings of
compassion and mercy.

6. This Week’s Video: Father Frank
Mann’s Awakening to Compassion for Animals

Watch the touching
story of a priest, Father Frank Mann, who awakens to the plight of
God’s animals and chooses to live a life of hope, healing and justice.